Новости за 04.08.2017

Sir Rudolph Bing, co-founder and first director of the Edinburgh International Festival, once said: “The opera always loses money. That’s as it should be. Opera has no business making money.” Clearly this didn’t hinder his career, as he went on to be manager of New York’s Metropolitan Opera for 22 years.

Leo Varadkar speaks at Queen's University Belfast. Andrew Towe Photography/Queen's University Belfast, Author provided

Leo Varadkar, the Irish taoiseach (prime minister) expressed polite but firm frustration with advocates of a hard Brexit during a speech at Queen’s University Belfast.

A ten-year-old girl was recently denied an abortion by the Supreme Court of India. She was a victim of rape, which she alleges was perpetrated by her uncle several times over a period of seven months. Her pregnancy was discovered after she complained of stomach ache and was taken to the hospital, but in late July the court decided it was too late in the pregnancy for her to have an abortion.

With three elections in one month, the complexities of sub-Saharan Africa are on full display. On August 4, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame won reelection by a widely anticipated landslide. Next up is Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, who is hoping to retain power in a hotly contested vote on August 8. In Angola, meanwhile, longtime ruler José Eduardo dos Santos is retiring, but the voting that begins on August 23 will make little difference in a country that amounts to little more than a one-party state.

With three elections in one month, the complexities of sub-Saharan Africa are on full display. On August 4, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame is expected to easily win reelection, while Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta is hoping to retain power in a hotly anticipated vote on August 8. In Angola, longtime ruler José Eduardo dos Santos is retiring, but the voting that begins on August 23 will make little difference in a country that amounts to little more than a one-party state.

When he was elected president of the Philippines in July 2016, President Rodridgo Duterte promised to negotiate peace agreements with the major insurgent groups that have destabilised much of the country for decades.

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How would you feel if your right to freedom of movement was infringed because other people your age were involved in criminal activity? You would be outraged, and rightly so. Yet this is the reality facing teenagers and young people as Scottish railway network ScotRail introduces the Mosquito anti-loitering device at two of their stations.

French president Emmanuel Macron has promised to launch a series of “democratic conventions” to allow citizens across Europe a say on the EU’s future. His idea is an important element of plans to revive the EU’s fortunes at a difficult time.

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The title “Prince of Wales” has been passed down through generations of England’s – and later the United Kingdom’s – royals since the 13th century. It is granted to the heir apparent, though it is not a requirement that the next in line to the throne holds it.

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Creating a huge global network connecting billions of individuals might be one of humanity’s greatest achievements to date, but microbes beat us to it by more than three billion years. These tiny single-celled organisms aren’t just responsible for all life on Earth. They also have their own versions of the World Wide Web and the Internet of Things. Here’s how they work.

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It may not be obvious while lying in the sun on a hot summer’s day, but a considerable amount of heat is also coming from below you – emanating from deep within the Earth. This heat is equivalent to more than three times the total power consumption of the entire world and drives important geological processes, such as the movement of tectonic plates and the flow of magma near the surface of the Earth. But despite this, where exactly up to half of this heat actually comes from is a mystery. Читать дальше...

Spirulina is a blue-green algae with multiple uses. Shutterstock

A friend recently confided in me about his fertility problems. His physician had told him his sperm were small and malformed, to the point that he might struggle to get his wife pregnant. In an effort to make him feel less bad, perhaps, she added that male fertility problems were currently at “epidemic” levels in the UK.

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The ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040 is perhaps the most significant policy announcement made by the UK government in the past decade (with the possible exception of Brexit). It feels like a key moment for the fight against pollution and climate change, but the shift from petrochemicals to electric vehicles will be disruptive and extremely expensive. The ramifications need to be considered systematically.

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The great British public are a charitable bunch. But people do not give out their hard-earned cash equally, and they prefer certain charities. A new study I led suggests that a person’s political views and attitudes towards their own country – and whether they voted for or against Brexit – can explain which causes they support.

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The great British public are a charitable bunch. But people do not give out their hard-earned cash equally, and they prefer certain charities. A new study I led suggests that a person’s political views and attitudes towards their own country – and whether they voted for or against Brexit – can explain which causes they support.

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Newborn babies may be adorable, demanding and helpless but we tend not to think of them as particularly social creatures as they come to terms with what this exciting and terrifying new world outside the womb means for them.